Her Rodeo Rancher

by M. K. Stelmack

  “Aren’t you worried that they’ll kick you?” she’d asked. “I mean, even by accident?”

  “No, you get a sense of where they’re at, and what they’re capable of. Like people, I guess. You must’ve met people and known if they were going to be dodgy or not.”

  “I think it’s already been established I’m a poor judge of people. Men, anyway.”

  He smiled at her, that classic Claverley smile. “Your luck has changed.” He put a bridle around a horse whose hair was a shade of red she’d recommend to clients, and then saddled up Molly to give them time to get to know each other, but Molly must’ve sensed that Krista was nothing like Laura. But would Will listen?

  “If I can make a fool of myself at your family’s, you can make a fool of yourself on a horse,” he’d said.

  Krista decided not to inform him about her family’s conversation the night after the barbecue. Bridget, also stung by Will’s supply of meat, reminded her of the great Claverley Legacy. They were one of the original settler families, they even had a block claimed in the town graveyard, there was a Spirit Lake street named in their honor and, of course, as everyone knew, there was the Claverley Park with its Western-themed playground equipment.

  He cares about you, Bridget had said and then shrugged, but at the barbecue it was clear he also cares about being a Claverley.

  Sneaking a look at Will now, Krista knew that her horsemanship had failed the Claverley seal of approval. Even the horses didn’t approve of her, and she wouldn’t blame them if they voted her out of the barn.

  Nor did it help her confidence that she wore a helmet and a Kevlar vest to protect against kicks and falls, both insisted on by Will. Even Keith let Austin ride with a baseball cap.

  Feeling her body going out of position again, she wiggled. But Molly took it as a signal to break into a trot. Unprepared, Krista jolted along toward the bushes rimming a slough.

  “Will. What do I do?”

  He accelerated Blackberry to come up alongside Molly. “What exactly do you want to do?”

  “First gear. I want her back in first gear.”

  “Okay, relax your thighs, pull back a little on the reins, whoa, whoa, duck—”

  If Will had shouted, his warning might’ve registered but he kept his voice even and the overhanging branch smacked her in the face. She instinctively twisted to the side. Molly pulled away under the unexpected shift of her weight and with a yelp off went Krista, falling between the horses. Hooves flashed at her face; a knock on her helmet; she screamed. Now there were pounding hooves and one seriously long curse from Will uttered even now in a calm, even voice.

  He spoke again, this time above her. “Krista? You okay?”

  Nothing but blackness. She then realized that was because she’d closed her eyes. She opened them to Will’s concerned face. Concerned—and from his flattened mouth, irritated.

  “I’m good.”

  “Do you hurt anywhere?”

  “My dignity is crushed beyond all repair.”

  “If that’s all, then can you sit up?”

  She did. Molly had run off and was now slowing to a walk. “I’m sorry.”

  “Yeah, well, I should’ve known it wasn’t going to work out. Molly hasn’t been ridden in a week, and she was raring to go. Bad call on my part.”

  He was being kind. “The trouble is that I have no instinct for horse riding. I understand astrophysics better, and I flunked science.”

  “That’s fine.” But from the hard line of his jaw, it clearly wasn’t. “I’ll round up Molly and we can head for the house.”

  “What about the missing calf?”

  Will scratched his face and looked off to Molly. “I might’ve not been totally honest on that point.”

  “Did you not, a mere week ago, promise you’d give me the real Will?”

  “Aw, c’mon. If I said we were going for a ride, you would’ve wanted to turn back after fifteen minutes, so I came up with a good reason to keep going that your big heart couldn’t have refused.”

  “You lied to me.”

  “It was for a good cause.”

  “It wasn’t. It was for a miserable, selfish cause,” Krista said, struggling to her feet. “I hate—no, I loathe—horse riding. It hurts, the horses can’t stand me, I’m sweaty, I feel ugly, and I really don’t consider it fun if my date is correcting how I sit every few minutes.”

  He caught her arm. “I’m sorry. We’ll try again some other time.”

  “No, no, no.” Krista fumbled with her helmet strap and stripped it off her head. The breeze ran through her hair like a kiss from heaven. “I’m not trying again. I’ve tried to be a good sport twice. Once for Laura. Once for you. Both times, huge disasters. I realize that lowers my value in your eyes, but there you have it.”

  He did that long gaze across the pasture again, as if expecting an incoming message from afar. “No, refusing to get on a horse doesn’t lower your value.”

  “But you have to admit this evening didn’t roll out the way you’d hoped.”

  “You’re right about that. You need more lessons than I thought.”

  “You overestimated my ability because you don’t even know people who can’t ride.”

  “There’s your family.”

  “They don’t count.”

  “How about this? I’ll give Molly a quick run to get some of the spit out of her, and then we’ll do what we did at the wedding. You sit and I’ll take the reins.”

  This was humiliating. At the wedding with everyone in their best and everyone watching, it made sense. Now it reeked of failure. And the ride back made for awkward conversation. She’d never been so glad to see a barn.

  Never so glad to have her feet on solid ground again. “You do realize that I never plan to get on a horse again.” She wasn’t joking, either.

  He unstrapped the saddle on Molly and draped it on the railing. “I figured that.”

  “Are we still dating?”

  He met her eyes over Molly’s rump. “You tell me.”

  His sideways vote of confidence in them felt like ointment on her sore muscles. She had shown him her talentless side and he still wanted to be with her. She itched to show him another part of her world. “We are, if you’re ready for round two with my family.”

  “I guess if you got on a horse twice, I can meet your family one more time.”

  “Good. We’re going out on the boat this weekend.”

  Will dipped his head to unbuckle Blackberry’s saddle. “You have a boat?” Was it her or did he sound a little choked?

  “The family does. Well, us and the bank for the next three years. You up for it?”

  “Sure,” he said, “sounds like fun.” There wasn’t a trace of excitement in his voice. Never mind. Nothing was more fun than a day on the lake.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  “IT NEVER OCCURRED to you to tell her about your fear of water?” Dana said to Will, as he leaned against the door of her pickup. She was inside the cab, ready to head home with the water tank she’d asked to borrow.

  “It did, but the thing is, I’m already in trouble with her family.”

  “How so?”

  He didn’t want to count the ways again. “Let’s just say that if I refuse, I’ll come across as even more of a snob. They wouldn’t believe that I only like water if it’s coming out of a tap.”

  “They’ll know Saturday.”

  “I might be able to fake it.”

  “How do you intend to do that?”

  “I sit on a boat, don’t I?”

  “You mean like Krista had to sit on a horse?”

  Will’s stomach churned as if he was already on the water.

  “You could take lessons,” Dana said.

  “Yes. But they happen in places where there’s deep water.”

  “Y
ou must’ve drowned in your previous life or something. You’ve always been scared of water. Janet said bath time when you were a kid nearly broke her. Deal, buddy. After all, Krista got on a horse for you, and we all know she’d rather plug staples in her hand.”

  “A horse can’t kill you.”

  Dana raised an eyebrow at his shoulder where the horse had kicked, narrowly missing his head.

  “Fair enough. Maybe I can figure out a way—”

  Dana tensed, her eye on the truck that had just turned in. Keith, back from work early. He moseyed his way up to the house and Dana shifted into drive. “I better go.”

  Will and Dana hadn’t talked about Keith since the wedding, and Keith hadn’t filled Will in on his version of events. That in itself spoke of the rawness between them.

  Krista would use the opportunity to apply salve to the wound. He preferred to leave it alone, except he’d promised Krista he’d talk to Keith and a good three weeks had already passed. She hadn’t prodded him yet. The social media fallout and their own dating disasters were distraction enough. “I take it you two haven’t talked since the wedding.”

  Dana pulled a face. “Plenty about Austin. He texted me about the first word which was good. But if I’d kept my mouth shut at the wedding, he would’ve called me. Now, he mostly texts. And I try to time seeing Austin when he’s not around. Like today.” She played with the wheel, clearly wanting to go. “Anyway, I probably deserve it, right? I threw you over and then he does it right back to me.”

  Keith parked the truck at the house and disappeared inside with bags of groceries. He didn’t look their way, even though he must’ve seen Dana’s truck. He could’ve at least waved. “Not a question of deserving,” Will said, “but for the record, this only proves that I’m the smarter brother.”

  Dana was churning out road dust when Keith reappeared with a box under his arm. The part for the hay binder. Good.

  They reached the broken hay binder at the same time. Keith shook out a pair of coveralls. “Dana short on water?”

  “Creek’s running slow. The wind the other night knocked deadfall further up. Until she gets in there with a chain saw, she plans to haul in water.”

  Keith gave him an accusing glare. “That’s hard work. Slippery, too. Fall with a chain saw and—” He sucked in his breath.

  “I offered to help but she has a hired hand through to the end of the month.”

  “Then what?”

  He was talking as if Will was at fault for not managing Dana’s life. “How is it either one of our business?”

  Keith jerked up the zipper on the coveralls. “Austin’s still napping, so I’ll get started here.”

  “You know,” Will said, “you can take a break now and again.”

  “You got the easy life all figured out. You and Dana were talking away.”

  Enough. Time he had it out with Keith. “And it might’ve gone on longer except she couldn’t wait to hightail it out once you pulled in.”

  Keith ripped at the box. “I planned to say hello once I got the milk and cream in the fridge, but she’d already left.”

  “Can you blame her? You blew her off at the wedding.”

  Keith pulled out the part. “What the...? This isn’t it. I told them.I gave them a picture, wrote it down. And still they get it wrong. I don’t have time for this.” He shoved it back in the box and made to go.

  “Never mind it. You won’t make it to town before the store closes, and there’ll be another day at least before they get the part in. I’ll go in first thing and give them a piece of your mind, okay?”

  Will held out his hands for the box and Keith thrust it at him. “Now how about you answer my question before Austin wakes and you have to turn into dad.”

  Keith sat in the hub of the giant tractor wheel. “He said it, last night. He was walking ahead to his room. He stops, looks back and says, ‘Dad.’”

  Will felt a beam of pride. “Well now. His second word.”

  “Third. He also says ‘up.’”

  “True. Dad, up and Dana.”

  Keith rubbed his cheek. “Yeah, well, he hasn’t said her name in the past while.”

  “He did today. She stopped by the house to see him.”

  Keith brightened. “She did?”

  “She’s visited a few times...when you weren’t around.”

  Keith kicked out his legs, scrubbed his head. “What could I have told her? ‘Sure, I’ve got feelings for you, too. Let’s give it a shot because I’m the kind of guy that’ll give anything a whirl.’”

  Will leaned on the wheel of the tractor, hoping the shade from the tractor would make the conversation less heated.

  “So...you do have feelings for her?”

  “Yes. Why wouldn’t I? I mean, you did.”

  Not the way he did for Krista. His regard for Dana was logical, but now that he’d a taste of Krista—well, if there was no going forward for them, there was no going back for him, either. “Not the same way, that’s clear now. You never let on. When did you figure it out?”

  “About two seconds after I suggested she could do better. I guess I realized how much I was giving up.”

  “Then why didn’t you tell her that you’d said a real dumb thing and would she maybe let you reconsider?”

  “Because two seconds after that, I also realized that I’d made the right decision. I’ve got nothing to offer.”

  “What do you mean? You’ve got the section of land.” Each of the three kids had one, jointly owned with Dave. On his death, the kids took full title. None of them wanted that to happen anytime soon, though. Will had also taken on a second section.

  “And she has four in her name. She’s not interested in more land. Or bills, and that’s all I’ve got. Nothing but bills, no matter how hard I work. I don’t have the time to be with Dana, and even if I did, I can’t afford to do anything with her.”

  “She understands your circumstances, Keith. She has her own means, too. If she chose you, it was because of you. Well, you and Austin.”

  Keith bowed his head. “She really seems to care for him.”

  “Loves him like family. And Austin feels the same about her.”

  “He is a great kid, isn’t he?”

  “You’re doing an incredible job, Keith. That thing with Macey, you’re going to look back on it one day and call it a bump on the road. Be happy you got a great kid out of it. But are you going to find some silver lining from turning down Dana?”

  Keith sent Will a piercing stare. “A month of dating Krista make you the relationship expert?”

  “I’d describe it as a sharp learning curve.”

  Keith grinned. “Sounds as if she’s on one with horses.”

  “Yeah, that didn’t go so well. Which I don’t get, Keith. Dana’s your complete package. You have feelings for her and you guys agree on everything. Well, except for kids.”

  “What do you mean? I like kids.”

  “She wants four.”

  Keith blinked.

  “Anyway, my point is that I’ve got feelings for Krista, but I admit there’s nothing we have in common. She hasn’t even given me a clear answer on whether she wants kids.”

  “Not good news, for the heir apparent to the Claverley dynasty.”

  It wasn’t, but neither could he deny that he still wanted her.

  “Does she know about your shoulder?”

  “Not the whole story.”

  “And how do you think she’s going to react when she finds out?”

  He recalled her face when he’d admitted to lying about the missing calf. Wait until she found out about his fear of water, never mind his shoulder. “Not well.”

  Keith stood. “We’re walking disasters.”

  * * *

  FROM THE FIRM boards of the dock, Will eyed the Montgomery boat as it undu
lated from the impact of the boarding passengers. The bit of floatage that separated him from the dark and cool depths of Spirit Lake seemed sturdy enough. It had chairs with arms to grip and seats deep enough so he wouldn’t fly out like a plastic bag, as well as life jackets. Bridget was handing some out to her daughters. He spotted a few adult ones. Good, he wouldn’t have to embarrass himself by asking if they had life jackets, or come off as challenging their responsibility as boaters.

  He might be able to fake his way through this. He was secretly relieved that Mara had begged off. Krista would be hard enough to fool. Mara’s professional sharp eye would blister right through his facade.

  The girls protested they didn’t need life jackets, having passed “level four swimming,” four more than he’d ever managed. Bridget snapped them into one, anyway. Wise mother.

  “Anyone else want one?” Krista said. But she only looked at him.

  He gazed pointedly at the girls puffed out in their jackets over their bathing suits. “Sure,” he said. “Good idea. Can never be too safe.” And there, he’d found a clever way to save himself without revealing his total lack of water skills.

  He stepped onto the boat, taking a wide stance to absorb the motion. It was barely rocking; his stomach stayed solid. Now, if they could remain tied to the dock...

  Jack stood at the helm. “Everyone ready for the best day of their lives?”

  A whole day? “I didn’t realize it would be for that long,” he said to Krista, who sat beside him on the transom seats. She was applying sunscreen onto the exposed parts of her skin, of which there were many.

  “We share the boat with another family, so when our turn comes up and the forecast is for sun and clear skies, we take advantage of it. Why? Do you need to be somewhere?”

  Yes, anywhere else. “Uh, no.”

  She took in his jeans, T-shirt, running shoes and baseball cap with the brand of a farm equipment dealership. “You wore your sun protection.”